By Garang Malak

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South Sudan and Sudan have signed an agreement extending the oil deal up to March 2022, state news agency Suna has confirmed.

The agreement, signed in Khartoum on Monday, stipulates that Juba pays $26 for each oil barrel passing through the Sudanese pipeline operator, Petrolines for Crude Oil Ltd and $24.1 for each oil barrel transported through Bashayer Pipeline Company.

Through the deal, South Sudan will supply Khartoum refinery 28 thousand barrels per day.

Speaking during the signing ceremony, South Sudan’s minister of petroleum Daniel Awou Chuang said the extension was mutually beneficial to both countries.

“As we move on, we know that South Sudan cannot export the crude oil except through Sudan because they have the facilities for that, and also we know Sudan relies on South Sudan in regards to energy facilities for power generation and refinery. This kind of relationship should continue as we move on and that’s why the extension is extending the time beyond what was agreed, and of course we know it is not going to end there” said Awow.

For his part, the Sudanese Minister of Energy and Mining Eng Adel Ali Ibrahim said the signing was a spirit of fraternity and cooperation.

“This agreement has expressed the real brotherhood and friendly relationship between the two countries. As we agreed before at high government levels to support and strengthen relationship between the two countries, based on mutual interest and based on real brotherhood and real neighbors and as one nation two peoples” he said.

Sudan and South Sudan first signed the oil deal in 2012 and then extended it until December 31, 2019.

Sudan lost two thirds of its oil revenues after the split of South Sudan in 2011, but transportation of South Sudan's oil through Sudan's pipelines provides revenues to boost Sudan's difficult economy.

—Additional reporting by Xinhua.